Golf: Liu shoots 65 for Founders Cup lead; Casey holds slim lead at Innisbrook
Golf: Liu shoots 65 for Founders Cup lead; Casey holds slim lead at Innisbrook
PHOENIX — Yu Liu played the final four holes in 4 under Saturday for a 7-under 65 and the third-round lead in the Founders Cup.
The 23-year-old Chinese player eagled the par-5 15th and birdied the last two to reach 19-under 197 at Desert Ridge in the event that honors the 13 women who founded the LPGA Tour.
Tied for the lead with top-ranked Sung Hyun Park entering the round, Liu took a one-stroke lead over Carlota Ciganda.
“I’m not very comfortable and not very used to playing in the last group,” Liu said. “I’ve had two experiences before and I didn’t do very well. Today was definitely a turnaround.”
Liu made a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th with Founders Marlene Bauer Hagge, Marilynn Smith and Shirley Spork looking on from a stage on the edge of the green.
“Playing golf for a living is definitely not something that I take for granted,” Liu said. “I really appreciate what the Founders have done for us.”
The former Duke player rebounded from a bogey on the par-3 14th with the eagle on 15,, hitting a 5-iron from 190 yards to 20 feet. She made a 5-footer on the par-3 17th to tie Ciganda for the lead.
Ciganda shot 63 to match the best score of the week, playing the final five holes in 5 under with an eagle and three birdies. She’s trying to become the second former Arizona State player to win the event, following 2017 champion Anna Nordqvist.
“When you make putts, it’s great,” Ciganda said. “I’ve been playing great, hitting lots of green, so it was a matter of making putts.”
She set up the eagle on the 479-yard 15th with a 7-iron to 12 feet.
“They put the tee up today,” Ciganda said. “I knew if I hit a good driver it was going to be a short iron.”
The Spaniard also made a 15-footer on 18. She won her two LPGA Tour titles in 2016 in South Korea and Mexico.
Angel Yin was 16 under after a 66.
“I’m going to try to do the same I’ve been doing the past three days and just play my game,” the long-hitting American said. “If it works, it works.”
Park, the winner three weeks ago in Singapore in the last tour event, was 15 under after a 69, leaving her four strokes behind upstart playing partner Liu.
“I was just trying to get myself mentally prepared for the round and just play my own game,” Liu said about Park. “She’s just a player that I’ve been looking up to a lot. I had a couple experiences playing with her, but I did really bad the previous few. Today I was just controlling my emotions and staying in my own game.”
Hyo Joo Kim (64), Jin Young Ko (64), Women’s Australian Open champion Nelly Korda (66) and Lydia Ko (67) also were 15 under. Lydia Ko saved par on 18 with a close shot from the deep left bunker.
“To make an up-and-down from a place where it could have been a lot worse, I’ll take it,” Ko said. “I don’t even want to talk about the second shot. It was probably the worst shot of my whole time here in Phoenix.
Shanshan Feng, the only Chinese winner in tour history, had a 64 to join 2016 champion Sei Young Kim (67), Bronte Law (65), Jessica Korda (67), Charlotte Thomas (67) and Mi Jung Hur (69) at 13 under.
Azahara Munoz, Ciganda’s teammate at Arizona State, matched her fellow Spaniard with a 63 to reach 12 under.
Casey holds slim lead at Innisbrook
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — The final hour changed the dynamics of the Valspar Championship, just not the lead.
That still belongs to defending champion Paul Casey, and he saw only the upside of having his three-shot margin shrink to one, and going from a final round pairing with a player who is 0 for 195 on the PGA Tour to playing alongside the No. 1 player in the world.
On a Saturday at Innisbrook that began with all 70 players who made the cut still very much in the mix, Casey surged to a three-shot lead until a bogey on the 18th hole for a 3-under 68 that left him one shot ahead of Dustin Johnson.
At stake for Casey is a chance to become the first back-to-back winner of the Valspar Championship since this PGA Tour event began in 2000.
Behind him is Johnson, who is going for his second victory in three starts.
“Of the guys on the leaderboard, he’s the one I would want to be paired with, so it doesn’t bother me,” Casey said. “Obviously, two shots would have been nicer than one, but one is better than level, or one behind.”
Johnson had some say in that final margin with one of his best shots of the day, a 9-iron from a bunker a few paces in front of a steep lip to the front shelf of the 18th green, 10 feet behind the hole. He made that for a 67 to get into the final group.
And that was good news for Casey?
“He’s the best player in the world. That’s why I work and I do what I do, because I want to play against the best in the world,” Casey said.
He also pointed to Johnson being the favorite, at least in the eyes of thousands of fans on a warm, sun-filled day at Innisbrook, the kind of buzz it had last year when Tiger Woods played for the first time.
“I actually feel very little pressure,” Casey said. “You look at my results versus Dustin’s. He’s the better player, so it’s pretty simple. If I go out tomorrow and beat him, I actually might win, plain and simple. Great scenario.”
Only it’s not that simple, and no one knows better than Casey.
A year ago, he rallied from five shots behind with a 65 and wound up winning by one shot over Woods and Patrick Reed. That’s a tribute to Innisbrook, which players regard as one of the purest tests of the year, certainly in Florida.
Casey was at 8-under 205. Eight players had a share of the lead in the third round, and 10 players finished within four shots of the lead.
That starts with Jason Kokrak, winless in his 195 starts as a pro over the better part of eight years. He showed how quickly fortunes can change when he made three birdies in five holes to start the back nine, and then smashed an 8-iron with a breeze at his back that rolled across the 15th green and into the cup for a hole-in-one .
“You can be three, four, five shots out at this golf course and really make some noise if you get it going early,” Kokrak said.
Kokrak shot 30 on the back for a 66 and was poised to play in the final group until Johnson made his birdie on the 18th. Luke Donald, a past winner at Innisbrook playing for only the second time this year — and first since January — grinded his way to a 70 and joined Scott Stallings (70) three shots behind. Louis Oosthuizen, who had a 66 despite two bogeys on the last three holes, and Jim Furyk were among those four behind.
Casey seized control with three birdies in a five-hole stretch to start the back nine. But on the final hole, after Johnson made his birdie, Casey went into the first of a series of miniature church-pew bunkers on the 18th, couldn’t get to the green and missed his 15-foot par putt.
Johnson looked to be giving up plenty of opportunities, especially on the par 5s. He had an iron into the green on Nos. 1 and 11, just missed and chipped to short range before twice missing birdie chances. And then he picked up a birdie on the par-5 14th in the most unlikely way .
From light rough with trees partially in his way, he tried to hammer a 5-wood 290 yards. But it came out with too much wind and floated into the wind, hit a tree well short of the green and nearly went into water that isn’t typically in play. Still, he had a tree between his ball and the green. Johnson hit a hard pitch from 73 yards to the right of the tree and let the hill bring it back to the green. And then he made a 35-foot birdie putt.
“Makes up for the other two,” he said, walking to the 15th tee.
But the big shot was on the 18th, and the birdie got him into the final group in his first trip to Innisbrook since 2010.
“I’m in a good position ... because this golf course, it’s tough,” Johnson said. “If I can go out and shoot a good score, then I’ve got a chance.”
Source : https://napavalleyregister.com/sports/pro/golf-liu-shoots-for-founders-cup-lead-casey-holds-slim/article_8d501cac-4ff7-5b5a-a831-92e6d7daefa8.html
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